Venezuela

Venezuela experienced a considerable gold rush in the 1980s, mainly due to placer deposits along the Caroni and Paragi rivers and close to its border with Brazil, where a similar rush was going on. Output rose briefly to 20 tonnes (0.64 m oz) and the central bank, Banco Central de Venezuela, established its own buying unit and then marketed the gold abroad. But, as in Brazil, the best deposits were soon worked out and foreign mining companies attempting to follow up were largely thwarted by restrictive mining laws, bureaucracy and law suits. The best prospect was at Las Cristinas in south-eastern Venezuela, where Canada’s Placer Dome in partnership with Corporación Venezolana de Guyana (CVG), the state industrial and mineral company. The potential output was 16 tonnes (0.51 m oz) but, faced with constant delays and a weak gold price, Placer Dome suspended the entire project in 1999. In June 2001 the company announced that they had sold their majority interest in the project to Vanessa Ventures of Vancouver, a small Canadian miner, for a nominal amount. However, in a further development, and apparently the result of a dispute over the contractual obligations of the development of the project, the government revoked the mining licence to proceed with Las Cristinas.

Meanwhile, the Vancouver-based Crystallex International has built a collection of gold operations in Venezuela, starting with the Albino at Kilometre 88 in the El Dorado district, the scene of much gold activity, the Tomi mine in El Calle, which opened in 1999, and is developing Lo Increible Project. In April 2001 Crystallex announced that it has started mining and milling ore from its La Victoria open pit, (one of six known gold deposits in Lo Increible project). Hecla Mining from the United States has also taken over La Camorra mine and pushed production up to almost 5 tonnes (0.15 million oz) in 2001. However, these and small placer operations elsewhere in Venezuela cannot compensate for the loss of Las Cristinas, so that overall output reported by GFMS is around 17 tonnes (0.54 m oz), instead of over 30 tonnes (0.96 m oz), had the latter mine opened.